Words: Dr Pankaj AGGARWAL
Be it a teenager, or septuagenarian, each of us is aware of the fact that smoking is harmful. Well, there is no cigarette wrapper that does not carry the caveat, “Smoking is injurious to health.” Yet, we find that approximately 975 million people are smokers worldwide.
Quitting smoking is really tough.
Smoking is the leading cause of premature death. It is also responsible for nearly one million deaths every year. Not only does it cause lung disease, stroke, heart disease, and cancer; it can also kill one in myriad ways.
Addiction is a compulsive, also obsessive, reaction to a stimulus. Everyone has an energetic life force that is contained in every cell of our body. This energy determines the colour of our eyes; the shape of our bodies. With increased awareness of the life-threatening effects of tobacco smoking, most smokers try to quit smoking, but they often fail. Craving and withdrawal are the primary reasons why most people are unable to quit smoking.
Certain herbs, which are natural substances, help one to quit smoking with no side-effects. Besides, homeopathy can be a boon in one’s endeavour to quit smoking. Homeopathic remedies are derived from natural substances — from plants, minerals etc.
Treat The Cause. Not Just Effect
To quit smoking, one should try to understand as to what actually causes smoking. The psychoanalyst Dr Sigmund Freud, MD, pioneered the theory of psychosexual development, which describes how personality develops during childhood. Dr Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages, viz., oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital stage. If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality. If certain issues are not resolved, at the appropriate stage, fixations can occur.
Smoking is considered to be a fixation at the oral stage of childhood. During oral stage, the infant’s primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and sucking reflex is especially important. The primary conflict at this stage is the weaning process — the child ought to become less dependent upon caretakers. If fixation occurs at this stage, as Dr Freud believed, the individual would have issues with dependency, or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting.
The will and determination of a person to quit smoking should be strong. Modern science uses two methods — supplementation and elimination. Supplementation uses a secondary object to eliminate the oral condition. Yet another method of eliminating the habit is finding a more permanent chewing object, like a plastic toothpick, or plastic straw, that has been cut into shortened segments. The homeopathic approach is different. It does not make the person shift from one thing to the other. It assists to uprooting the problem.
Healing With Homeopathy
There are a wide range of homeopathic remedies with useful effects that enable one to quit smoking, though their prescription depends upon the precise indication, also the individual’s overall personality.
It is common to find many symptoms from which the individual suffers as a result of withdrawing tobacco [withdrawal effects]. Homeopathy treats such symptoms as well.
The following homeopathic remedies are often prescribed — after complete evaluation by a homeopathic physician.
- For excessive nausea and vomiting: Ipecacuanha
- For bad effects of tobacco chewing: Arsenicum album
- For gastric symptoms, the next morning after smoking: Nux vomica
- For palpitation; tobacco heart; sexual weakness: Phosphorus
- For annoying hiccough from tobacco chewing: Ignatia amara
- For tobacco toothache: Clematis erecta, or Plantago major
- For neuralgic affections of right side of face; dyspepsia; chronic nervousness, especially in sedentary occupations: Sepia officinalis
- For impotence; spasms; cold sweat, from excessive smoking: Lycopodium clavatum
- For occipital headache and vertigo, from excessive use of tobacco, especially smoking: Gelsemium sempervirens.
The bottom line is simple, also insightful — it all depends upon the will and determination of the individual, who wants to give up smoking, juxtaposed by a suitable homeopathic remedy, prescribed by a homeopathic physician, to help in the process. This, in conjunction, could make the idea of a ‘Tobacco-Free India,’ a tangible reality.
Very nice article, Dr Pankaj Aggarwal, on a growing social problem: “How to control smoking among our youth.” I’m sure TW360 readers will benefit from reading your insightful piece.